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What’s the best part of planning a wedding? Having a blog that allows for passive income while you are busy planning! This last month went by in a complete whirlwind. I’m so thankful that my blog was able to keep up despite me not getting to pay attention to it!

This month I earned $8.39 compared to last month’s $19.24! You might think, “Hey you went down!” That might be true but the key to this blog is passive income, and we achieved that.

In this post I’m going to breakdown my traffic, revenue sources, and goals. These posts keep me on track and hopefully serve as motivation for you too!

Of course to earn a passive income with a blog you need to start your own blog. Easy setup for your site can be found here: 15 Minute Quick Start to Hosting with Bluehost. Feel free to message me with any questions, I’m here to help with anything you can think to ask.

Launched Secret to Start Your Site in 7 Days

With the 7 Day Secrets, you will receive information to ensure your blog’s success. Your questions will be answered, and the mystery about starting a blog will be nonexistent. I want your blog to be a money making powerhouse, and I share all my social media tips for fast growth.

Wanting to stay home is natural, starting a blog or an online business can be natural too. If you have a business or an idea, having a self hosted site is 100% necessary for monetization. You’re leaving too much on the table if you don’t have a place where people can find you. The investment is minimal, and refundable. With hosting you have the ability to earn money just from site traffic, and you can expand into the wonderful world of affiliate marketing at anytime. Check out my quick start guide here: Start a WordPress blog with Bluehost.

Shareasale just updated their dashboard and it is fabulous! With the new and improved merchant search it’s easier than ever to find great companies to support and earn from. Shareasale also makes all of your incoming transactions very transparent! My favorites are currently: Tailwind,ModCloth, and PicMonkey. Feel free to click the links if you’re looking to join a new affiliate network.

So What Happened To Convertkit?

Honestly, I couldn’t justify the cost after my free trial was over. I want the blog to be more profitable before I invest money into marketing. With my current email program, Sumo I am able to create email templates, do A/B testing, and create 5 different popup types, all for free. Convertkit is amazing, but I’m going to grow my subscriber list more before I delve into that. If you are looking for a free place to grow your subscriber list I highly suggest Sumo.

Social Media Goals:

Pinterest Goal 1,400. Failed!From 1,181 to 1,392 followers! Amazing! I’m not disappointed at all. Every month we grow and we got so close! I had less time to share this month,, and Tailwind saved my bacon with automated pinning. It’s so important to consistently share. My fails this month directly correlate with sharing less. Follow me on Pinterest and feel free to message me at anytime with Pinterest questions. If you would like to join my Connect and Share Group Board you can do so here. It’s an active board with great repin rates, use it to grow your own following. My goal is to reach 1,475 followers this month.

Instagram Goal 450. Failed! I went from 357 to 401 lovely followers on Instagram. Missing this goal was not surprising and it was my fault. Use the lesson for yourself! It absolutely shows you how important it is to consistently share. Let’s try this again! This month I hope to actually get my count up to 450. I always follow back. Find me on Instagram here: Instagram.

Twitter. Goal 310. Failed!I went from 221 to 247 followers. Twitter has been a great source of traffic, and a reshare can be worth it’s weight in gold. My goal will be to hit 310 for October. Find me on Twitter (I love retweeting content.)

Facebook Page Follows. Goal 125. Accomplished!From 165 to 279 follows. How did that happen? I really have to credit facebook success to facebook groups and pages! Feel free to join mine here: Facebook Page. Explore FB pages as a source for new readers and people you can support. If I reach 375 for October I will be elated!

Blog Subscribers. Goal 100. Accomplished! From 65 to 132 subscribers. I’ll be sending out blog interview questions to help my subscribers promote their own blogs for free. This will help to establish more back links for any bloggers looking to up their SEO and page views. I would love to get up to 210 subscribers for October.

Having time for social media is one of the MOST IMPORTANT parts of blogging. You should be sharing WAY MORE than you are writing. Great content is 100% necessary, but that won’t matter if no one sees it. I have a very aggressive social media sharing strategy. Find it here The Social Media Scorecard to blast your accounts!

Blog Goals

Share 5 Blog Posts Total. Failed! I shared 4 in total this month! Despite that, it was an exciting month and I received more views than ever before. Without Tailwind I could never, ever share as much on Pinterest as I currently do. Pinterest is going to be a huge part of your traffic while you gain your individual following. Nurse it as often as possible. Share other pinner’s pins more than your own, that’s the key to success.

Create a Blogging Guide.Success! Sharing Secrets to Starting Your Blog in 7 Days is something that I aimed to do for the last 4 months. Don’t let your time get away from you. When you are creating a guide make sure to outline everything you want to write. It makes things infinitely easier, and will keep you on task and motivated.

Questionnaire for My Subscribers to Share. Failed! This is partially created, and I hope to share it soon. A lot of us are blogging and I want to provide a space for you guys to share your work and products. Please feel free to message me or subscribe to the blog if you’re already interested.

Combine all Blogging Printables to Offer a Comprehensive Pack.Success! In my Secrets to Blogging Success in 7 Days I offer all of the blogging printables. Get yours now by subscribing it includes my special Scorecard to blast your social media with a very aggressive sharing strategy.

Engage With My Tailwind Tribe. Accomplished! Utilize the program in a completely free way with tribes! Tribes are a free place for you to post your pins, but need an invite much like a groupboard on pinterest. Go right here: Promote Your Blog- The Rising Damsel Tribe for your invite. Tribes will always be free, but if you do join Tailwind you will get a free month through my link.

Blog Income Breakdown

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Ebates: $1.98 I love ebates because of how easy it is to save money. Just add the browser extension and easily cruise for discounts. I check ebates before I buy anything.

Ibotta Sign Up: $5.00 Ibotta is an incredibly easy way to save money on products that you are already going to buy. Easily earn coupons through quick quizes or snap your receipts to save.

$8.31!!!

October Goals

Share Consistently. Planning a small wedding is infinitely less time consuming than a big one. Nevertheless I was a bit of a slacker on the social media front this month and boy did it show.

Post 5 Instagram Pictures.

Continue to research promoted opportunities.

Create Email Templates. With the success of starting my subscriber list, it’s time to start using it! It’s my goal this month to reach out to my subscribers at least twice per month.

Continue to Reach Out for Guest Posting Opportunities. Reaching out to more successful bloggers can be intimidating, but it’s exactly what we all need to do in order to grow our reach.

Final Thoughts

Starting a blog was the best thing that I ever did for myself! I hope to inspire you to find your own creative outlet and become financially independent. If you’re ready to jump into blogging I suggest you read my post Start a WordPress blog with Bluehost. It will walk you through an easy setup, and as always feel free to message me, I’m happy to help! For $3.95 a month with Bluehost you can take the next step to starting something great.

Have you made any steps toward change recently? Let me know so I can cheer you on! Every step is a step towards financial independence and we are all worth it. Please subscribe! There are lots of freebies and perks on their way. Don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest. I’d love to help spread your content. Together we will be great.

Samantha is the owner and creator of The Rising Damsel. She's an HR vet with a passion for helping people take control of their future. Contact her at samanthaj@therisingdamsel.com for questions or collaboration.

With the help of the internet, we literally have the ability to ACCESS THE WORLD and our passions can be turned into a business! With a little diligence, you can make money with almost any kind of online venture.

There’s no longer a need for brick and mortar stores. Virtually anything you would purchase in person, can now be bought online. A website is no longer a business option, it is a business necessity. Without your own website, you are leaving money on the table and frankly disappointing your customers. Your customers need 24/7 access to your site but what will it take to build a great website? It’s easier than you think, and once you realize how important a website is, you will probably kick yourself for not getting online sooner.

What does a website really do?

Evens Up the Playing Field

Not every business needs a storefront, but every major business definitely needs a website. Efficiently and effectively running your business from an online platform will save you money. Whether or not you are trying a new product, an idea or a blog, a website is the easiest and cheapest way to explore your entrepreneurial spirit with little risk involved and has huge potential.

No rent, no stock market hassles, no employees, no store to clean, no deadline to meet and no boss yelling at you. That is the reality of working for yourself; you get to live a life of only answering to yourself and your readers.

Creates Connections

Meet and help amazing people everyday! I have never encountered as many wonderful people in real life as I have online. Grow your community and you will have a group that wants you to succeed! An extra perk is that you can help everyone by sharing your information or product.

Once you have a reputable blog or website behind you, you can partner and work with other business owners . This will open untold possibilities for money making. As I mentioned, a good website will certainly buy you a lot of credibility in the business world. With Bluehostyou can start your site for $3.95 per month.

Personalize and Create

With themes available by the click of a button, your site can be instantly upgraded to look just as good as any multi million dollar corporation. Without owning your website, you will only have access to change your basic layout. It’s true that more and more sites are integrating design, however to get the analytics and plugins necessary for success, you will need a self hosted website through a company such as Bluehost. Affiliate networks also look to self hosted websites when considering growing their network. Overall, a self hosted website is much more respected.

Ability To Reach Customers With Valuable Information

When your customer has a question, they are going to need immediate access to answers. A website gives them answers at their fingertips.

With a website, you have a platform that your customer can access morning, noon and night. This factor is incredibly important in this modern day. A blog or a business website needs to have a professional appearance to gain and keep customers and traffic.

Many bloggers live on the road. This luxury is afforded to them enabled by not being tied to an office. The beautiful thing about a website is that you can create from any location. Your office is at your fingertips, and so are all your loyal readers.

Customers Can React

When you own your website, you can reach people in a unique way. Use it to your advantage. Consider innovative ways to reach people such as discounted items for product reactions etc, free products or an affiliate program. Customers or people visiting your blog, also have the ability to comment on your article or product. This increases your credibility threefold! With comments and reviews you will get a better understanding of what your readers interests are.

Take your financial future into your own hands. Starting a blog is the best way to grab that freedom. Run your own advertisements, sign up for affiliate networks and start pulling in money doing what you love. Use my guide to take the mystery out of WordPress and Bluehost. The only thing to regret is not starting sooner. Bluehost has made an unstoppable product, and I will show you how to capitalize on it.

Improves Your Ability to Give Great Customer Service

Give your customer a sense of friendship and closeness with you and that, in turn, actually increases the value of your product.

With a website, you can create a contact form that allows your customers to contact you at anytime! This is invaluable in business. Customers will also have the ability to comment and critique your sites which will only help make it better.

Giving customers the ability to subscribe means you can reach your customer at anytime with any new information and or a new release. This will increase visits to your site and allow you to change your marketing techniques based on who is opening your emails and when as well.

Your Confidence

No matter what your business, a blog or website gives you the ability to create your own marketing strategy for your business. No longer will you be hat in hand paying advertisers to put your ad in their little newspaper. You can be your own SHINING VOICE!

Starting a blog has allowed me to stay at home, earn money and live a life that is dictated by me!

With this free email course, I will show you EXACTLY how to set up your blog so that you can be your own advertiser to gain more followers and garnish more respect. It’s not as technical as you would think, I promise. From there, we will gain massive followers and start earning money!

We are all in a unique place where ANYBODY can start a business, because the internet gives us instant access to billions of potential customers. With a blog you can share your ideas, create a thriving business, help people, and make a difference to your life.

No more waiting for a promotion, no more begging for a raise, no more long commutes to work! We are strong, smart, educated people and the world is ready for us and our ideas! Work at home, raise your kids, make extra money. The potential to earn with your own website is unending and I will walk you through the exact steps you need to ensure setup and blogging success.

Blogging with Bluehost and WordPress can be set up in less than 10 minutes

Get a FREE Domain Name through The Rising Damsel and Bluehost

Host for $3.95 per month through Bluehost

First in class 24 hour customer service with Bluehost

Hosting through WordPress and Bluehost gets you free access to wordpress.org

Ability to control your future and your finance through blog monetization.

Stop wasting time, use my research so that you can start earning money on your creation too! In 7 days I will show you all the secrets to starting a blog that will get you followers, make money, and allow you to stay at home.

When you subscribe to receive 7 Days and Many Secrets For a Profitable Blog you will also receive these awesome freebies:

I love all of my printables but my absolute favorite is:
*The Social Media Scorecard to track your efforts on more than 7 social media accounts! You won’t find anything like it elsewhere.

If you’re ready to really learn how to get down and dirty with blogging, we can make you a professional in no time! It’s easier than you think.

The workforce isn’t getting any easier, I work in HR, I’m a credible source. Take your financial future and career into your own hands by starting a site about a topic you are passionate about. Subscribe to receive 7 Days and Many Secrets For a Profitable Blog. I can’t wait to share so that you too can live your dream.

Subscribe to launch your dream site. I can’t wait to help you grow your business!

Don’t forget to find me on Pinterest. Thanks for reading, be sure and pin this article if you found it inspirational you never know who you could be helping. Much love till next time!

Samantha is the owner and creator of The Rising Damsel. She's an HR vet with a passion for helping people take control of their future. Contact her at samanthaj@therisingdamsel.com for questions or collaboration.

This post contains affiliate linksPinterest is a well-known blogger entity, but why and how are some bloggers so successful at repins? You either love Pinterest or you’re frustrated and confused by it. “90% Of my traffic is driven from Pinterest!” But how you ask? I had 19 followers less than a year ago. I wanted aggressive growth and let me share with you how I got over 1,000 followers in less than 6 months. No gimmicks; get ready for some facts most people won’t tell you.

Pin Other people’s Pins

I hear it all the time “No one pins MY pins, I get nothing linked from Pinterest to my Website! There’s no traffic! What am I missing?” First thing I do when I hear that is check what they share. If all you share is your own content you are doing Pinterest WRONG!

Guess what, when you are new, no one really cares what’s on your site. I’m new, it’s hard to hear but I promised truth. It takes cultivating to succeed at Pinterest. Chances are other site’s pins are more popular and fetch more repins because they have built a reputation as being trustworthy sources of information. Counter that by sharing quality pins with high repin numbers while you build your own reputation. As a general rule of thumb I share 1 pin from my site for every 8 pins found from other sources. People will start to follow your boards because you share quality information from all over the web, your site’s pins will fit in nicely with that trusted information.

Need more convincing? Think about it, a lot of Pinterest users don’t even have a site, they never share their own content. Why do they have 1000’s of followers? Clearly it’s not because of anything they’ve written, it’s because of what they’ve shared and repinned.

Pin Popular Pins

We’re back in Pinterest high school where repins are king. Here’s what happens as an example: If a pin has 1k+ repins, most people would assume it contains quality information. ‘Maybe I’ll just pin it quickly no need to check, it’s been pinned 1k times with that many repins it has to be good!’

You know you’ve done it, everyone has. A large repin number gives a pin automatic credibility regardless of content. Use that to your advantage.

What’s the first thing you notice? I hope it’s that the ‘Saves’ column number count is SIGNIFICANTLY larger than that of the clicks. That tells you people are looking for quality content to save to their boards quickly more often than they actually read the articles. Which proves that repin numbers have a lot of clout and people pin them on the chance that they are good. *You’re looking for high repins number, but remember to consistently share high quality pins that are relevant to your niche and helpful to your readers.

Check Your Links

Do you really need to check your links? YES! Don’t be a victim that inadvertently spreads spam, that equates to you losing a lot of followers. Before I realized what happened, 20 of my beloved pinterest followers were gone. I clicked back through my links and realized a supposed weight loss website just was pushing weight loss pills, it was total spam. My followers didn’t like it, and down fell my numbers. It is especially important to check your links when you are auto scheduling pins, because you could spam 10 different boards.

Check What is Being Repinned from your Site

This trick shows you which pins are getting more action than others. If a pin is popular, you can use that pin structure to create future pins.

Always Repin Your Popular Pins

Now that you know how to search through all the pins that have been pinned from your site, repin the most popular ones. If you pin a fresh pin from your site everyday your pin starts at 0. However, if you check your ‘Source’ page, you can snag the pin that has the highest repin number instead of starting over from scratch. As you can see from my example above, there are 2 options for the exact same pin. One pin has 40 repins and the other has considerably more action at 350+ repins. Which are you more likely to trust?

Create your own value, because as we discussed some people pin superficially and are looking for pins that will get them the most action back. A high repin is more of a guarantee of reciprocation. Give the people what they want by tailoring what you would already post.

Pin the Correct URL from YOUR Site.

If you are haphazard with your pins, I guarantee you have mistakenly pinned your main URL instead of the actual post you intended to share. Avoid this mistake by taking the time to pin and then make sure that you are on the actual post you are intending to share every time.

If you are looking for a way to change your life and take your financial future into your own hands, starting a blog is the best way to grab that freedom. Run your own advertisements, sign up for affiliate networks and start pulling in money doing what you love. Use my helpful guide to get set up with WordPress and Bluehost Start Your Own Blog with Bluehost.

Strike Someone’s Fancy!

Get on Group Boards! You knew this was coming, but I’m really going to tell you the ‘why’. If you have 5 followers, then 5 people see your content, and hopefully… share your content. That’s wonderful, but the internet is about ratios. There is a proportionately smaller chance that your pin will initiate a response the fewer the people see it.

So how do you get more eyes? You Pin to group boards. Pin your content, but also pin content with a high number of repins. Like we discussed, if your pin has 2 repins someone could see it and think “OK good pin”. If you pin a pin with 1,000 repins someone is more likely to look at it and think “What’s that about?”, then they click and initiate action. Action is what we want. Join my group board: Connect and Share Promote Each Other for Success. Just follow me / send me a message to add you.

Utilize Your Alt Descriptions Every time

People might not be pinning your content like spreading a wildfire YET, but it WILL happen, especially once you start joining group boards. When your pin does get repinned that pin is seen by that person’s audience. Why not flirt with their audience a little? Entice every eye that sees your pin every time.

Easy Trick! A Pin description is the 2nd most important part of a pin, the first being the visual response. Make sure that all your pins have descriptions EVERY TIME. Do this by using your ‘alt text’ box when adding images to your website. Take the time to think about what you want your pin to accomplish. You need people to click and pin, so be enticing!

The ‘alt description’ will become your pin description once saved to pinterest. Pinterest functions just like google and you want Pinterest to pull up your pin every chance it gets. Without a description you are missing out on a chance to connect with your readers and add SEO. Maybe you think ‘No, I’m not missing out… I add descriptions every time I pin my content’. Well, you do but does your reader? Some blogger’s won’t even repin an image without a description.

From my example above you can see that I address the post name, what the post is about, who I am, and hashtags. All of these are crucial information. Create a similar formula for your descriptions so you can begin to get into the habit of always adding that information. (Hashtags have been said to affect Pinterest analytics, try for yourself, I found them to be quite successful.)

Visual:

I think we can all agree that the pin on the left looks more complete and frankly more valuable. A valuable pin has a better repin chance every time. *Remember longer pins have a much higher repin rate. I used the smaller pins to highlight the text portion.*

If you’ve heard this tip before then what’s stopping you from updating your ‘Alternative Text’? It’s crucial and really anything you share should be of quality with an updated description even if it’s not your content. No more excuses.

Automate Your Pinning on Tailwind

We all know that when you get serious about your Pinterest growth, you will invest in an auto-scheduler. It’s simply too ridiculous to pin as often as needed on a day-to-day basis without it. You need to consistently be sharing 30-50 pins a day.

Tailwind helped me take my marketing to a new level with optimal pinning times to increase viewership. When you auto pre-schedule pins to pin, it really feels less burdensome.

So how do you auto-schedule pins? What does that mean? It means you can ‘queue’ any pin or picture from anywhere online to post to your Pinterest. Tailwind created AN AMAZING extension for your browser called, Tailwind Publisher. This allows you to schedule pins immediately.

The extension works similarly to Pinterest as I mentioned. I realize how scary it is to add more to your plate, so please see the images to see how easy it is to auto schedule.

Pinterest

vs.

Tailwind

As you can see from above Tailwind and Pinterest have a similar interface in regards to selecting your pins. The difference is that with Tailwind you are able to select multiple pins at a time, and select ‘schedule’ rather than selecting an individual pin and immediately selecting the board. It looks like this:

Select ‘Go Schedule’, and you’re taken to this screen:

Select which board you would like to share to and then select ‘Add to Queue Now’ and it will schedule for the next available time slot. That’s it. Once scheduled, you can see the Pin in your dashboard waiting to be recalled.

Freebie alert! Tailwind is offering a free trial via The Rising Damsel. You are credited with the ability to schedule 100 auto pins. I recommend scheduling 20 pins a day for 5 days. This will give you a good idea of what scheduled pinning can really do for your follower count. Continue normal use of Pinterest, but add your additional free auto scheduled pins via Tailwind. Your influx of added followers will amaze you.

Another bonus of Tailwind is completely FREE ‘tribes’. Tribes are similar to Pinterest group boards and will give you immediate visibility to an endless number of people. Tribes are also a great way to get comfortable using the Tailwind dashboard. I can help connect you with Tribes, but you can also join my brand new one here: Promote Your Blog-The Rising Damsel. I’m on Tailwind tribes all the time, and their chat feature is amazing. Feel free to message me with any of your questions, conveniently from Tailwind chat!

Fill your board with valuable content that interests you, and will benefit others.

Duh, keep reading 😉 There’s no reason to wait for your favorite pinner’s content to trickle into your daily feed. Go directly to the source and look at their pins. There are a few people I follow closely on pinterest, their content is spot on and their links ALWAYS work. You follow people because you enjoy what they share. When you’re looking for awesome content to fill up your tailwind scheduler, it’s an easy and reliable way to potentially find 30 pins you love. It’s a win-win because you are sharing a ton of a fellow blogger’s content, and you saved a lot of time. As a bonus you know that others in the blogging community enjoy and appreciate the information. Even if you aren’t using Tailwind, this is a great technique to build relationships, just remember to space your pins out if you aren’t using an auto-scheduler.

Secret Alert! You can use your Tailwind Publisher on Pinterest. Simply click the extension when you are on a pinterest board you like.

This is especially helpful when you want to mass schedule pins and not think about sharing every single hour. Once a pin is queued, you can edit the description, edit the time, even add it to more boards or update the URL. Just remember to ensure that the pin links to the correct page.

Contrary Advice

Use caution when ‘Branding’ your Pinterest Boards. Personally I do not like them. If all I can see is fancy font on top of a colored background, how do I know that I’ll like what your boards offer? I’m 100% more likely to subscribe to all of your boards if I can at least glance at what content they contain.

Despite what I say about high repin numbers, never ever pin a pin based on the repin number alone. I always check a pin out, ensure that the link works, and that the information is valid and useful to my followers.

Keep Pinning

I know it gets discouraging. Look at Pinterest as a tool, it is not meant for immediate gratification, contrary to what many bloggers portray. It does work, but it takes a little bit of effort to get the ball rolling. Pinning is exponential and you need to put in the work, but once you start seeing other people repinning your content to their boards it’s the best feeling in the world.

Ready to start your own blog? Starting a blog was the best thing that I ever did for myself. I hope to inspire each of you to find your own creative outlet and become financially independent. Check out these posts to get you started:

Grab The Social Media Scorecard to help you manage and track your social media efforts. It has made my life so much easier! I can challenge myself weekly and verify increased followers based on action. You can get it by subscribing to the blog right below your URL bar.

I would love to hear how you manage your Pinterest! Is it something that you struggle with? Or are you one of the lucky ones rolling in followers? Find me on Pinterest. You can trust my pins, and I will always do everything that I can to help you grow. Please message me with any questions or comments. If you found this post helpful be sure to share it with your own blogging community. I appreciate it so much. We are stronger together. Much love and success, till next time.

Samantha is the owner and creator of The Rising Damsel. She's an HR vet with a passion for helping people take control of their future. Contact her at samanthaj@therisingdamsel.com for questions or collaboration.

I’m so happy to see you here! It shows that you’re ready to make a positive impact on your life! If you’re ready to break away from a job that just doesn’t suit you, my tutorial will guide you and make it super easy to start a blog for just $3.95 per month. I also created some amazing printables that will help you skyrocket your growth and lead you to financial independence.

My mission with this blog is to get you on an awesome career path, while getting you past the fear of blogging so that you can form your very own blogging empire. No matter what stage of life you are in, you can make changes in order to have a better tomorrow. I’m going to tell you how I went about gaining followers, earning a small profit and how you can get on track to do it too.

I’m working my way up to full-time income as a blogger. Before I was laid off, I specialized in hiring practices and recruitment (my division got bought out and our HR department got cut). Blogging gives me the ability to reveal my HR secrets, but I’m also passionate to share the rewards of starting your own blog.

As a blogger, I want to share the beginning stages of my blog growth and income reports because it gives me accountability. I hope that it inspires you to start your own blog and take the steps towards achieving a full-time, work from home income.

This month I am going to shake up the order of my income report. Let’s kick it off.

My resource page is filled with a growing list of companies that I trust and that are treating me right. Check mine out above, and use it to create your own!

Took Control of My Subscriber List

GROW YOUR LIST, YOU HAVE TO GROW YOUR LIST! Who hasn’t heard that? Well I signed up for Convertkit. Signing up to Convertkit is something that I had considered for quite some time. Pulling the trigger on the program felt great. I am excited to work with a company that is not plagued by rumors of emails being sent straight to spam. I launched my subscriber list, also my ‘The Social Media Scorecard’ which helps you prioritize and take control of your social media accounts! Investing in Convertkit assures that my readers receive posts that benefit their personal lives and career.

When you’re ready for an email marketing platform, the peace of mind that Convertkit offers is worth every penny. Your email subscriber list is the BLOOD of your blog, the sooner you start your list the better it will be for you. I would be honored if you would subscribe 🙂 you can do so in the right scroll bar.

Quality pinterest images is what will bring on more repins and visits to your blog. I began creating new images for my past posts to see the results. To my surprise, I received even more repins than the initial time. That just proved it for me! Don’t forget to renew and share your old content to continuously get it on people’s radar. You’reconstantly adding new followers and an old pin might strike a new fancy.

Upped Instagram Presence

I love taking pictures. Instagram requires work just as pinterest does.Thankfully like pinterest, people just want love and acknowledgement. If you show some love in the form of a heart or a follow, people will often reciprocate. My facebook groups have been a great source of inspiration for posting instagram photos, and I truly appreciate that. Some companies will base your affiliate pay rate on followers, and some are specific to account type. Make sure and cover all your bases. There are plenty of option opportunities in instagram accounts that don’t revolve around makeup and food, so don’t let that stop you like it did me. Your random pictures or your tailored stock photos have a place to call home. Instagram is a fantastic community for growth and support, don’t ignore it like I had. If you’re struggling with Instagram, check out my profile here, I always follow back.

Continued to Pinterest Group Board

I love my group board! Looking to join one? Just click here: Connect and Share. If you are the owner of a group board, make sure that you tend to your followers. “What do you mean“ you might ask? What I mean is that you need to make sure that you are sharing their content on your boards, clicking their images, engaging and repinning. If you want YOUR group board to rank higher in THEIR analytics, you need to make sure and show it in your actions. If someone sees continued growth and action in your group board, they will continue to pin there. BOOM, you got growth.

Social Media Goals:

Pinterest Goal 820. Accomplished!From 676 to 917 followers! Smashed this one again using my own printables. I guess I better up the goal and try to hit 1,100 by the end of August. Can we do it? I think so!

Instagram Goal 283. Failed! I went from 183 to 273 lovely followers on Instagram. I still consider this a win despite not hitting my goal. I’m trying to up my Instagram game and take more photos, but I refuse to ever post for the sake of posting. This month I hope to getmy count up to 350.

Twitter. Goal 140. Accomplished!I went from 98 to 148 followers. Twitter has been a great source of traffic, and a reshare can be worth it’s weight in gold. My goal will be to hit 200 for August.

Blog Subscribers. Accomplished!From 5 to 30 subscribers. Honestly, I had no expectations for building my list this first month (I love you guys thank you for joining me on this journey). I created a printable that fellow bloggers have found useful, and it has converted really well, I am so pleased to say. You can check out the post here: How The Social Media Scorecard can Skyrocket Your Traffic. When you subscribe, you will receive the same printable that blasted my pinterest! I would love to get up to 70 subscribers for August.

Facebook Page Follows. Accomplished!From 75 to 98follows. I also didn’t have a goal for this one just yet, but am so pleased with the results. Looking for 125 for August.

Referrer Views:

Pinterest: 83 / 104 /289 / 302

Stumbleupon: 302 / 305 / 215 / 246

Facebook: 25 / 100 / 134 / 204

I put the most effort in scheduling and interacting with the 3 social networks above. There are other sources for referrers, but keeping an eye on this helps me track which of my strategies are working in long term, so that I can share them with you! My numbers are steadily increasing over time which is all anyone can hope for!

July’s Goals- How did I do?

Get Convertkit. Accomplished!Convertkit is the ultimate mailing platform, and I’m glad I chose to work with them.

Share 6 blog posts. FAIL!I’m not sure how traveling bloggers do it. I need to work on how to blog even when I’m not ‘in the zone at home’. I was on vacation and nonstop sightseeing kept me busy.I did share 3 posts and 1 page.

Get Ahead of Posting.FAIL!Thankfully I have a ton of post ideas, I just need to get ahead of the writing game.

Increase Pinterest Follower Count. Accomplished! I had another smashingly successful month on Pinterest. I created a detailed post for you here: Skyrocket Your Traffic Using the Ultimate Social Media Scorecard plus free printables that will give you that BOOST you want. My new method of social media sharing has created a lot more free time and less anxiety.

Use Tailwind More Efficiently.Accomplished!Tailwind saves my sanity when it comes to pinning. Using their auto scheduler allows me to pin more than 50 times a day with ease. With 900 pins currently scheduled, I can worry about other things, and the peace of mind is worth the price for such a comprehensive scheduler. The analytics allow you to see what pins and boards are performing well with extraordinary detail, and I have been able to offer my readers more of the pins that benefit their lives. My engagement continues to grow steadily, I just love em can you tell?

Narrow Down and Focus.Accomplished! This is sort of an ‘accomplished-ish’. I definitely focused on everything that I needed to focus on this month, but I still need to work on my posting schedule.

Increase Page Views. FAIL! Definitely my fault. As I mentioned… really no clue how traveling bloggers do it! My mind is in a million different places when I’m away from my desk. I posted less than I wanted to this month, and I let 2 weeks go by without a peep. As a result my page views grew slightly stagnant.

Awin.com– $.50 from TrustedHouseSitters. Awin is a fantastic affiliate program! If you haven’t heard of it, I highly suggest you investigate. You can also sign up for Fiverr, and Swagbucks among many other lucrative affiliate programs.

Drum Roll Please! We made a total of $1.98 for July!

You might wonder why I would post an income report of less than $2.00. But I’ll tell you, I blogged for 5 years without making 1 single cent. We all have to start somewhere, and when I decided to start blogging seriously, I cut ties with my old blog. The point is, no matter where you are in your income journey, you can make a decision to start earning in a new totally fulfilling way. My goal is to make a full-time income within a year, which is totally possible if I’m consistent.

Blog Goals For August

Set Up Convertkit. Using a new program is always daunting, I’m so thankful that Convertkit has been extremely easy to get comfortable with. My goal is to create a workable form and use Convertkit solely.

Create 5 day freebie. The Social Media Scorecard has done so well that I would really like to expand on that in the form of a boot camp. With Convertkit, I can create a sequence of emails that will be sent out over the course of a few day. Social Media doesn’t have to be a mystery and I love helping with this issue.

Share 5 blog posts. I have been sticking to around 4-5 posts a month. That is definitely okay with me. I would rather write constructive helpful posts that focus on new tips to help you, rather than short posts riddled with boring over blogged suggestions. I feel like blogging daily would decrease the quality of work I produce.

Create More Free Lead Magnets. Creating printables is something I find relaxing and enjoyable. Getting to share them through my blog is just a bonus. (Try to create a freebie around something that you enjoy doing so that it never becomes a chore).

Increase Pinterest and Social Media Follower Counts. While my blog is growing, I absolutely adore checking in on my social media stats. Use this as your own confidence booster! We might not always get the most page views, but seeing a new follower just makes it all worthwhile.

Research Guest Posting Opportunities. I’m trying to be strategic in my efforts. With a working subscriber list, I can now gather emails from folks who might come to my blog based on an article that I write for another site. It was really important for me to do this in order to not miss out on followers. Remember this tip in your own efforts. Before launching anything, ensure that your subscriber lists are active and working.

Engage With My Tailwind Tribe. SCREAMING FROM THE RAFTERS! Tailwind is the reason I still pin. I credit at least 75% of my success on Pinterest to Tailwind. Tailwind tribes are a free place for you to post your pins. A ‘tribe’ is very similar to a group board. Tribes are part of Tailwind, but this feature is 100% FREE! It’s an amazing source for collaboration. I currently spend a lot of time on Tailwind scheduling, and need to concentrate on sharing more content to and from the Tribes. Much like Pinterest, sharing other people’s content is what will get you noticed! If you would like a place to share your content please drop some pins on my tribe board here: Promote Your Blog- Tribe. Tribes will always be free, but if you do join Tailwind you will get a free month through my link.

Increase Page Views. The vacations have been had. I no longer will abandon my blog halfway through the month. Pinterest and Facebook can really save your bacon if your posting game is light. I’m excited to see what a full month of blogging will bring!

Why is Social Media so Important?

Your social media sharing strategy is what will direct people to your blog. SEO is important, of course it can’t be ignored, but an engaged reader has great benefits as well. Ultimately, engaged readers are what will get you closer to a full time income, treat them well and nurse other’s growth to see results in your own.

Leads That Worked:

The Ultimate Social Media Scorecard was created to make it easy and fun to track ALL of your social media accounts. Organize yourself, track your score, challenge yourself to achieve a higher score and watch the followers flock. It’s tried and true. I was sick of pulling my hair out, trying to manage all my accounts, use this tracker to save your sanity. For a more detailed account of what and when to post, see my post:Skyrocket Your Traffic Using the Ultimate Social Media Scorecardyou will be blown away by how your proactiveness will affect your numbers! I gained 241 pinterest followers in less than a month by supporting fellow bloggers, and by using the strategies and printables in the post.

If you’re new to blogging and affiliate marketing, I highly suggest you read my article Ultimate Tips and Widgets for Monetization to get you on track to creating a financially stable situation for your family! I take all the stress and questions away so that you can focus on building your business! There’s no reason to feel overwhelmed, so many people already have it figured it out! I can get you there too.

Ready to become more savvy when it comes to your life and finances? You’ll love these!

Starting a blog was the best thing that I ever did for myself. I hope to inspire each of you to find your own creative outlet and become financially independent. Check out these posts to get you started:

Writing my traffic updates is therapeutic. If you’re uncomfortable posting your results, I highly recommend you take the time to think about them and contemplate the future of your business in your own productive way.

What have you accomplished lately? Every step is a step towards financial independence and we are all worth it. Please subscribe! I would love to share my future helpful tips with you. Together we will be great.

Samantha is the owner and creator of The Rising Damsel. She's an HR vet with a passion for helping people take control of their future. Contact her at samanthaj@therisingdamsel.com for questions or collaboration.

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